In 2013, AMC's Breaking Bad concluded its fifth and final season to impressive ratings. The show chronicled the transformation of high school chemistry teacher Walter White into a minor drug kingpin after he was diagnosed with cancer (ostensibly so that he could ensure that his family was provided for after his passing). The question I want to ask is, what can we learn from the popularity of Breaking Bad? And, further, what does it tell us about contemporary North American culture? These questions are perhaps more difficult to answer than it might first appear, for they confront us with the challenge of extricating the intentions of the show's creator from the way in which it came to be perceived by audiences. In other words, it is not uncommon for a work of art to be understood by viewers in a very different way than its author intended. A famous example of this phenomenon was Dave Chappelle's decision to take a break from his show after a sketch intended to satirize racial stereotypes was perceived to be funny by audience members precisely because it reinforced the very essentialisms it was intending to disrupt. ... [read more]